Review by Dr. Suneel Mehmi
04.10.2026
All it took was two wonderfully capacious rooms to put this exhibition together. The work ranged from museum gallery installations inspired by flora and fauna to an animation about the International Court of Criminal Justice. Along the way were picture books, illustrated book covers and posters. Here are some of my highlights from the exhibition.
Annabel Wright – Winner of Advertising and Commercial and the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year
Vibrant and varied, this poster illustrated the theme of community which was developed through a collage or patchwork making circle and a crowd of young activists. A bench features as a patchwork of colours mirroring the collage circle’s interest and perhaps how the poster was composed and put together in different sections of interest, just like a collage or patchwork, so there is this postmodernist self-reflective aspect of the work. What resists the theme of the community is the red robin derived from a picture book by the artist that flies in the solitary sky and is discrete and individualised while all the humans are connected and form a group. This is the informing foil to the idea of community, the human versus the animal, the group versus the individual. The Robin is engulfed in a void, white field to exaggerate the contrast between colour and relation, the bird and the humans.
Julie Pereira – Winner of Adult Factual
Julie-pereira.work | @juliepereiradg
An explanation of the work of the International Criminal Court, Julie Pereira’s animation addressed the grim reality of the prosecution of genocide and other such crimes. The style was created to address such horrifying concepts. It was stark or minimalistic and had the power of black upon white, with a concentration on the central subjects on a white background so as to avoid distraction. The animation was fluid and the texture of the grain of the pencil work seemed to convey the idea that this was reality that was being reflected, that this was something with a tactile feel, solid like the world and its happenings. Drawings were abstract so as to channel attention on facts and not the terrible crimes being discussed. It was a case of style perfectly matching subject matter and in a very fluid and attention grabbing way.
This animation video here:
https://vimeo.com/1058256495?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
Grace Easton – Illustration for Children Runner Up
Utterly charming picture book illustration. All of the loveliness of the features of gouache painting were captured, with all of its variations of texture evident on the picture plane. What struck me particularly was the the luminosity of the colouration and how satisfyingly full and detailed the compositions on each page seemed to be. The simplicity of the subjects was immensely inviting for a younger reader and having about one subject on one page readily allowed for identification and investment in the characters.
Kaori Tokunaga – Emerging Illustrator Runner Up
kaoritokunaga.com | @kaoritokunaga.art
An entrancing painterly style. Such great atmospheric effects created through such an elegant simplicity. In particular, there was such a beautiful capture of landscape and the environment. A true bringing of the artistic to the world of the child.
SEE ALL THE ARTWORKS DISCUSSED HERE:
